As it is known there exists a crank-and-rocker piston machine consisting of a housing accommodating a crankshaft with a crank which mounts, through a bearing, a slide block; the work surfaces of the slide block interact with the surfaces of the rocker linked to a piston reciprocating inside a cylinder secured to the machine housing, while the interacting surfaces of the block and rocker are made as flat friction couples (Ref. I. I. Artobolevsky, Mechanisms in Current Technology, Volume 2, p. 23, Moscow, Nauka, 1979).
The disadvantages of the known machine are low operational reliability of the sliding friction couples due to impossibility to provide a steady fluid layer between contact surfaces during their mutual reciprocation, unfavorable conditions of interaction between the rocker and block contact surfaces due to insufficient rigidity of the rocker work surface resulting from the rocker considerable dimensions in the direction perpendicular to the piston movement, increased radial dimensions of the machine due to distancing the cylinder from the shaft rotational axis resulting, as is said above, from the rocker large dimension in the lateral direction, and increased friction losses due to unfavorable coincidence of the minimum relative speed of interacting surfaces of the rocker and block with the maximum mechanical exposure within the interface, in particular, when the machine is used as an internal combustion engine.
As is known there exists a crank-and-rocker piston machine consisting of a housing accommodating a crankshaft with a crank which mounts, through a bearing, a slide block; the work surfaces of the slide block interact with the surfaces of the rocker linked to a piston reciprocating inside a cylinder secured to the machine housing, while the slide block is made as a rotating sleeve (Ref. U.S. Pat. No. 5,546,897, Aug. 20, 1996).
The operating conditions of the slide block moving over the rocker surface, while being better than sliding of surfaces in the traditional rocker mechanism, however require a guaranteed clearance to be ensured between the block surface and rocker surface in the direction opposite to action of the operating force to prevent considerable friction losses when the block slides relative to the said rocker surface. Presence of a clearance results in decreased reliability and life of the machine due to occurrence of impacts between the contact surfaces and due to inevitable phenomenon of the block slipping relative to the surface contacting therewith. It is also noteworthy, that the slipping phenomenon always occurs when use is made of friction couples which movement is not synchronized relative to the surface contacting therewith.
As is known there exists a crank-and-rocker piston machine consisting of a housing accommodating a crankshaft with a crank which mounts, through a bearing, a slide block; the work surfaces of the slide block interact with the surfaces of the rocker linked to a piston reciprocating inside a cylinder secured to the machine housing, while the slide block is made as a rotating sleeve with projections and cavities of a complex spatial outlines synchronized with the position and form of the mating projections and cavities on the rocker surfaces alternatively interacting therewith (Ref. U.S. Pat. No. 5,546,821, Aug. 20, 1996).
Presence of projections and cavities in the interacting surfaces of the rocker and rotating slide block make it possible to decrease relative slipping of the interacting surfaces during the machine operation, however, the disadvantage of this solution consists in the complexity of ensuring the shape and dimensions of the contact surfaces, and unreliable operation, especially at extreme points of the slide block, when the contact is transferred from one surface of the rocker to its opposite surface.
The technical solution being the closest to the claimed one is a crank-and-rocker piston machine which consists of a housing accommodating a crankshaft with one crank mounting, through a bearing, a slide block (slider); the opposite (relative to the crankpin bearing rotation direction) work surfaces of the slide block interact with the respective work surfaces located on the rocker parts being opposite relative to the crankpin bearing rotation axis, with the rocker linked to pistons reciprocating inside opposite cylinders secured to the machine housing, where the machine is provided with lateral support elements with contact surfaces which translate to the housing the reactive torque and represent a cylinder and a piston, where the interacting work surfaces of the slide block and rocker bear operating support elements with contact surfaces and toothed racks, where the space between the contact surfaces of the operating support elements of the slide block and rocker accommodates support rollers provided with synchronizing toothed wheels which are engaged with the racks of the operating support elements of both the rocker and slide block, where the opposite parts of the rocker which surfaces bear the operating support elements are interconnected by means of longitudinal connecting elements, the length of the contact surface of the slide block support element being equal to the length of the contact surface of the rocker support element and the length of the contact surface to be determined as a distance in the slide block motion plane between the extreme points of the surface area translating the force action in the slide block-rocker couple (Ref. U.S. Pat. No. 2,312,057, Feb. 23, 1943).
The disadvantages of the known machine are its low reliability and short life due to increased requirements to high accuracy of manufacture dictated by the design, which is practically unachievable during series production. It requires absolute coincidence of the axes of opposed cylinders and arrangement of all cylinder axes in one plane. High dimensional accuracy of connecting elements is required to ensure perpendicularity of contact surfaces of the cylinders axis, and besides, perpendicularity of the crankshaft to the plane in which axes of all cylinders are arranged must be ensured.